ASRock Z77 Extreme4 boot problem

Hey there computer champions!

My friend just got the ASRock Z77 Extreme4 mobo and an i5 3570k processor and has installed everything correctly. But when he tries to boot the computer it gets half way into the windows loading screen and then it bluescreens for half a second.

The BSOD code is 0x0000007B, and I know some of you guys may know what that means. Also, when he tries to boot it in safe mode a whole list of "WINDOWS_..." things appears but it seems like it stops before it's even finished. After this he was asked to format the computer and he did, but nothing changed.

My guess is he either has the intel controller setup as raid and didn't load the f6 drivers prior to installing windows or he has the os drive hooked into the sata ports controlled by the asmedia chipset and didn't use the f6 drivers. If he is using windows that is older then vista f6 drivers should be used reguardless of which controller is being used.

Either way he shouldn't be using the asmedia sata ports for an operating system drive. Asmedia sata ports are the very top gray colored ports.
Assuming He's using vista, 7, or 8 attach the drive to one of the Intel chipset controlled ports and reinstall windows if needed.

He went into BIOS and changed the sata mode from AHCI to IDE since I found out that solved problems for others, but he is using the gray ports though. I'll get back to you guys after we've made the changes suggested here.

---------- Post added 2012-12-25 at 12:24 AM ----------

Alright so we connected the drive to one of the black ports and reinstalled windows but it still won't boot. We tested all the different sata modes that were available in the BIOS without success.
We also tested an old drive with windows XP on it and it actually worked. It was an old 80GB drive.

Also, what is the difference between the AHCI and IDE sata modes? Which one should we be using?

He went into BIOS and changed the sata mode from AHCI to IDE since I found out that solved problems for others, but he is using the gray ports though. I'll get back to you guys after we've made the changes suggested here.

---------- Post added 2012-12-25 at 12:24 AM ----------

Alright so we connected the drive to one of the black ports and reinstalled windows but it still won't boot. We tested all the different sata modes that were available in the BIOS without success.
We also tested an old drive with windows XP on it and it actually worked. It was an old 80GB drive.

Also, what is the difference between the AHCI and IDE sata modes? Which one should we be using?